The Turtle

Here we are, at the San Diego Zoo. It’s a great, world famous zoo. We took a picture at this turtle. This is the same turtle where my mom dropped my sister when she was a baby. Ah, the memories.

The Bleeding Charity

“I’m asking for nothing but my rights. You may think you can put me down because you’re dressed up like that (which you weren’t when you worked under me) and I’m only a poor man. But I got to have my rights same as you, see?”
“Oh no. It’s not so bad as that. I haven’t got my rights, or I should not be here. You will not get yours either. You’ll get something far better. Never fear.”
“That’s just what I say. I haven’t got my rights. I always done my best and I never done nothing wrong. And what I don’t see is why I should be put below a bloody murderer like you.”
“Who knows whether you will be? Only be happy and come with me.”
“What do you keep on arguing for? I’m only telling you the sort of chap I am. I only want my rights, I’m not asking for anybody’s bleeding charity.”

“Then do. At once. Ask for the Bleeding Charity. Everything is here and for the taking, and nothing can be bought.”

from The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis

Snackity Snack

Appetizer
On a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being highest), how attractive do you think you are? I don’t know I guess an 8 or 9

Soup
What local restaurant would you recommend to a visitor to your town or city? In N Out

Salad
What’s a lesson you had to learn the hard way? I don’t know, probably alot of things. I can be pretty stubborn.

Main Course
Name something in your life that you feel you can depend on 100%. God’s grace

Dessert
If you could see the front page of a newspaper from September 24, 2104, what would you imagine the headline might be? either something like “Courtney Gears wins presidential election” or “millions of people dissapear mysteriously”

New Runt?

Okay, maybe I haven’t had the candy runts in a while. Yesterday at the orthodontist after I got my braces off they gave me this bag with candy and popcorn and stuff in it. There was a mini package of runts in it. I saw it just now, and I’ve always particularly enjoyed the banana runts so I opened it up. Now here’s the question; when did they add the blue runt? also, is it just me, or is the green runt now apple and the red one some other flavor?

Celebrate

after a good three years, my braces are off and celebrations are in order!

The Sims 2 goods

Okay, so now I feel ready to impart a few discoveries and tips to you all about The Sims 2.

firstly, essential cheats
to use a cheat hit ctrl+shift+c
Motherlode – the best money cheat. adds $100,000 simoleans to your Sim’s account.
Moveobjects (on) – lets you move and delete things you wouldn’t normally be able to, such as spills

babies
get them a crib and a changing table. It seems best if the baby is in the same room with the parents. I put another crib in the kitchen so that they can put the baby down while she cooks, and while they’re eating. To feed the baby, click on the refridgerator and get bottle. Make sure both parents hold and cuddle and play with the baby. Try to change the baby on the changing table because if you don’t, you’ll end up with a dirty diaper on the floor. You can bathe the baby in the sink.

toddlers
Your toddler sim now has it’s own wants and fears, and needs that you can look at. There are only a few days until your toddler becomes a kid. try to keep their aspiration and mood up. If they have their birthday and turn into a kid with their aspiration level low, they can start off as pretty crazy kids. Get them a high chair, they’ll now be able to (sort of) eat with the family. They can now play with toys as well. Blocks give them logic points, and the toy xylophone gives them creativity. You’ll of course want to try to teach them to talk, walk, and potty train them. The potty training is actually easier than it seems. get them a toddler potty, and when their bladder level gets low, have one of the parents potty train them. For walking and talking, have one of the parents select “teach to walk” or talk, and they’ll work on it for a while. For some reason, my sims didn’t think this was fun and if their fun level wasn’t high, they wouldn’t do it for very long. Toddlers are cute and can crawl around on the floor, and follow their parents. Parents can also play with their toys with them and read to them.

kids
The hardest thing for both kids and teens is getting them to do their homework. This took me a while to figure out, but when they first come home from school, watch them carefully. They carry what looks like a spiral notebook and they go and put it down on the floor somewhere. usually in a room that’s something like a study. They’ll put it in the same place every day. You’ll need to raise their mood levels before they will do their homework. The lowest one after school is usually fun. Some quick ways for them to gain fun are watching tv, dancing, and playing a game on the computer. When their levels are reasonable, they should do their homework. They can do their homework or ask for help with homework. Parents can help with homework by clicking the homework. They can really cook with that toy oven. It makes, like, muffins.

Teens

Teen sims are interesting. They can do most of the things adult sims can do such as cook, but they’re still in school and still limited. Teen sims have aspirations. Sims with a Popularity aspiration will have different wants and fears than a sim with a Family aspiration. Teen sims can now flirt, have their first kiss, and propose to go steady. If you notice your teen having pimples, go to a mirror and use acne cream. I’m really freaked out by how gross these sim zits look, so I have them use it every time they go near a mirror if they get them. Like kids and toddlers, make sure their aspiration rate is up, especially when they’re about to become adults. Also make sure they do their homework and go to school in a good mood.

Sims 2 computer
In The Sims 2, they can do alot more with their computers. They can play a game, write or check email, buy groceries, chat, and find their own place to live. Adults can also write a novel.

Sims 2 for 1
watch tv on “the yummy channel” – raises fun and gains cooking skill
paint or play piano – fun and creativity
play chess – fun and logic

swimming – fun and body
write novel on the computer – fun and creativity
chatting – fun and social

Sims 2 You

okay, so I’ve got the Sims 2, and of course it’s pretty great and I’ve been playing it alot the past few days. Here are some highlight shots that I took(in no real order).

here’s my sim with her baby

my sims eating with their son as a toddler

my sim pregnant with her husband

I’ve figured out alot of things, but there are many that I have yet to understand. I just figured out how to help my kids with their homework(my sims first child isn’t a very good student due to this).

Quotes for Gmail invites

Okay, I’ve got 3 Gmail invites to give out, and I’m going to give them to the people who post the best quotes. So just comment with your quote if you need a Gmail invite.

Corkboard Layout

I’m not a layout changing all the time kind of a girl. I get things how I like them and I tend to keep them like that for a while. Today I made a spiffy new layout. The inspiration – a corkboard. I saw this tutorial and thought it looked like a fun idea. I did it a little differently, and I think it came out cute. But how will I put my title on? I wondered. I googled “push pin tutorial” and found a really nice one for Photo Impact. I used the concept in PSP, though and came up with the header. I made the background based on the stripes of my bedspread, and I’m really happy with the results.

I scream, you scream…

Tuesday Twosome
Ice Cream…

1. Two favorite flavors: banana and chocolate

2. Two least favorite flavors: cookie dough… I can’t think of another one

3. In a cone or cup? cone

5. If you could invent your own flavor of ice cream, what would it be and why? strawbery and chocolate because they are perfect together.

Munch, Munch

Friday’s Feast!

Appetizer
How are you today? I’m pretty good.

Soup

Name 3 television shows you watch on a regular basis. Smallville, The O.C., and Kim Possible

Salad
What’s the scariest weather situation you’ve experienced? umm… rain? it was alot of rain.

Main Course
If you could wake up tomorrow morning in another country, where would you want to be? England

Dessert
What do you usually wear to sleep? pajamas – usually pajama pants and a tank top or tshirt

Rhode Island – misleading

Last night I recieved a call from my mother, asking me if I knew that Rhode Island wasn’t really an island. I told her that yes, I did know that, and she was shocked. Apparently, she herself did not know. I explained to her that I knew that because it was one of the few states I could actually identify on my states test in fifth grade – it being the smallest. I told her that she never gets to make fun of me about my lack of geographical knowledge again. I don’t know why they call it Rhode Island, but I’m not sure why it has such a long name, being like half the size of orange county. I guess my mom thought it really was an island because the name is out in the ocean on the map, or something.

Ah, well. Californians are not known for their geographical prowess.

All the way in 64 bit!

okay, brace yourselves. A few months ago, as some of you might recall, I got a new CPU; the shiny new AMD Athlon 64 3200. Just today, I read the greatest headline;
Microsoft Launches Beta for Windows® XP 64-Bit Edition. AMD Athlon™ 64 Processor Compatible
This is totally great. I am looking into it right now, but I am just giddy! I’m looking into trying the free 360 day trial(okay, that’s like a year.) right now.

Windows® XP 64-Bit Edition is designed to address the most demanding needs of technical workstation users who require large amounts of memory and floating point performance in areas such as mechanical design and analysis, digital content creation and scientific and high-performance computing applications. Windows XP 64-Bit Edition for 64-Bit Extended Systems is only compatible with AMD Opteron™– and AMD Athlon™ 64 processor-based computers.

source

TV shows on DVD

I really like TV shows on DVD. I don’t like that many new shows, but there are some, especially older ones, where I could watch through half the season on a day while doing other tasks. I have up through Season 3 of the Dick Van Dyke show, a truly great show. I love the Sports Night set that actually belongs to my mom, even though it has the word “sport” in it.

Shows I’d Like on DVD
Lois and Clark – I loved this show. I used to watch it every single week.
Boy Meets World – I just found out that season one has been released recently and season 2 is on the way, though I’m looking forward to the later seasons a bit more
Kim Possible – great Disney cartoon – not the special movie or a few episodes DVDs, a nice full set. All the episodes with specials preferably.
Recess – hysterical kid’s cartoon, another Disney one, which I find so amusing
Daria – great cartoon, very not Disney.

DVDs I’m looking forward to
The O.C. Season One
Smallville Season Three
Dick Van Dyke – Seasons Four and Five (4 and 5 are out, I just don’t have them)

What’s this “weather” stuff about?

My grandmother just told me that our friend is in Florida and all the flights out are cancelled. Apparently there are, like, tornados and a hurricane. Now, I might point out at this time that I live in California. I know about tornados from The Wizard of Oz. I don’t really know what a hurricane is. Just wind and rain? that sounds like a pretty boring natural disaster when compared with, say, earthquakes and tsunamis.